Experimentally validated high-fidelity simulations of a liquid jet in supersonic crossflow

A liquid jet in supersonic crossflow is representative of a "cold-start" scenario in a scramjet engine, when the fuel is cool enough to remain liquid at the point of injection. Through the use of high-fidelity simulations, the liquid atomization process can be better understood, and other predictive models can be developed to inform design. We apply recently advanced computational methods to perform large-eddy simulation of a liquid jet in supersonic crossflow. In addition to its stability at any convective or acoustic CFL, the flow solver we use conserves volume in the low-Mach limit and conserves kinetic energy in the single-phase, low-Mach, inviscid limit. Simulating four different ratios of momentum flux, we validate the mean liquid distribution using recent experimental measurements of equivalent path length. Finally, we measure the statistics of liquid structures in the spray and investigate liquid surface instabilities.